New Book Explores Life of Young German Soldier in WWII

Online, October 26, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Dr. Ruth Cape, Austin College assistant professor of German, has written a new book to be released November 1. "Youth at War: Feldpost Letters of a German Boy to His Parents, 1943-1945" is a bilingual German and English annotated edition of a large collection of Feldpost (German military mail service) letters and postcards written by a German boy between September 1943 and February 1945.

The book intends to give a wide range of readers a deep insight into many aspects of military and social life during the Second World War, while offering a rare and close look at the war experiences, thoughts, and feelings of a German youth who from one day to the next was made a part of Hitler's war machine. This correspondence helps reconstruct an interesting piece of German Alltagsgeschichte [every-day-history], and can perhaps shed new light on a much discussed time in history.

The book chronicles the letters of Gerhard G., one of Germany's youngest soldiers in World War II. He was only 15 years old when he joined the German Flak, an anti-aircraft gun unit that defended Germany against aerial attacks. He also served in the compulsory national labor service (RAD) for young men and women and in the German Navy, until he became an American prisoner of war in 1945. Gerhard was 17 years old when the war ended.

The collection of 140 letters and postcards he mailed to his parents was found in his home in 2007, and represents the majority, if not all of his correspondence to his family.

The book is published by Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., and will be available through Amazon.

Cape joined the Austin College regular faculty this year after serving as an adjunct and a visiting faculty member since 1996, teaching classes in German, Latin, and French. She now directs the German program.

Cape completed undergraduate studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and graduate work in Latin and in history at the University of Munster, Germany. She began doctoral studies in history at the University of Arizona, and then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she completed a Ph.D. in Germanic languages.

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